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​3-month-old's body found after being ripped from father's arms in Harvey flooding

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Updated: 8:28 PM EDT Sep 5, 2017

​3-month-old's body found after being ripped from father's arms in Harvey flooding

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Updated: 8:28 PM EDT Sep 5, 2017

The body of a 3-month-old girl ripped out of her father's arms in gushing floodwaters was recovered Sunday in a muddy puddle about 100 yards from her parents' truck, according to the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office.

The child's parents, a Houston couple in their 20s, had fled their home due to flooding and were on their way to shelter at a friend's house on Aug. 27 when rising waters forced them out of their pickup truck along Highway 150.

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They swam through 30- to 40-foot-deep water looking for safety, according to the sheriff's office - but lost their only child in the process.

"The current was so fast, it ripped the baby out of their arms," Jimmy Williams of the New Waverly Fire Department said Saturday when he confirmed the infant was missing.The couple clung to tree branches for hours, waiting for help to come.

Firefighters finally stumbled across the Houston parents while rescuing two men trapped in a pickup truck by the bulging waters of Winters Bayou. Crews heard nearby screams and found the couple stranded in a treetop.

"We sent high-water rescue vehicles out there and could not get to them," Lt. Dan Todd of the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. After hours of thwarted rescue attempts, authorities finally brought the couple to safety.

Initially it was reported that the girl was 6 months old, but Todd said Tuesday she was actually 3 months old. Neither the child nor her parents' names have been released, but authorities said the couple has since returned to Houston.

Bodies have been recovered from two other confirmed deaths in San Jacinto County.

Jimmy Capers, the uncle of Sheriff Greg Capers, was found Aug. 28 after he drowned while herding cattle away from floodwaters toward higher ground. Services were held Tuesday in Cleveland.

Details have not been released in the other fatality, when a man on Highway 59 drove into floodwaters and drowned.

"So far that's all we got," Todd said. "Hopefully that's all we have."